Recommendations of Hearings Panel

Heading: inserted, on 4 September 2013, by section 6 of the Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 64).

144 Hearings Panel must make recommendations to Council on proposed plan

(1)

The Hearings Panel must make recommendations on the proposed plan, including any recommended changes to the proposed plan.

(2)

The Hearings Panel may make recommendations in respect of a particular topic after it has finished hearing submissions on that topic.

(3)

The Hearings Panel must make any remaining recommendations after it has finished hearing all of the submissions that will be heard on the proposed plan.

Scope of recommendations

(4)

The Hearings Panel must make recommendations on any provision included in the proposed plan under clause 4(5) or (6) of Schedule 1 of the RMA (which relates to designations and heritage orders), as applied by section 123.

(5)

However, the Hearings Panel—

(a)

is not limited to making recommendations only within the scope of the submissions made on the proposed plan; and

(b)

may make recommendations on any other matters relating to the proposed plan identified by the Panel or any other person during the Hearing.

(6)

The Hearings Panel must not make a recommendation on any existing designations or heritage orders that are included in the proposed plan without modification and on which no submissions are received.

Recommendations must be provided in reports

(7)

The Hearings Panel must provide its recommendations to the Council in 1 or more reports.

(8)

Each report must include—

(a)

the Panel’s recommendations on the topic or topics covered by the report, and identify any recommendations that are beyond the scope of the submissions made in respect of that topic or those topics; and

(b)

the Panel’s decisions on the provisions and matters raised in submissions made in respect of the topic or topics covered by the report; and

(c)

the reasons for accepting or rejecting submissions and, for this purpose, may address the submissions by grouping them according to—

(i)

the provisions of the proposed plan to which they relate; or

(ii)

the matters to which they relate.

(9)

Each report may also include—

(a)

matters relating to any consequential alterations necessary to the proposed plan arising from submissions; and

(b)

any other matter that the Hearings Panel considers relevant to the proposed plan that arises from submissions or otherwise.

(10)

To avoid doubt, the Hearings Panel is not required to make recommendations that address each submission individually.

Section 144: replaced, on 24 November 2015, by section 5 of the Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Act 2015 (2015 No 114).